ZAKA

 

A few days ago,  a shooting attack at a gas station, left two fatalities on the spot: a teenager, and a 57 year old man,  father of three, long time member of the Zaka volunteer organization.  (RIP).

Zaka (search, rescue and identification) has been formally established in 1995 by israeli ultra orthodox people with the main purpose of dealing respectfully with the dead and wounded in disaster places. 

After  disaster occurrence,  there is , sometimes, no corpse left but remaining pieces of it , scattered around.  Zaka people collect the pieces and all the evidence available on the scene, submit it to the forensic teams  and police  to get a DNA, which is key to identify the victim. They then, help arrange the burial , bringing closure to the family.

Zaka teams are also sent to 'rescue and identification'  missions abroad, after occurrence of eartquakes, tzunamis, volcano erruptions, terror attacks, mass shootings etc..

(In Thailand, the Zaka people were named 'the  team that sleeps with the dead',  as they transformed the pagodas into morgues to identify the tzunami victims).

Zaka volunteers are trained paramedics, and are great believers in the dignity of man - dead or alive.  In 2016,  the United Nations granted Zaka the status of a non-governmental consultant.

Zaka logo in hebrew  

Manchester - Jerusalem

The Media told us  there were dead, wounded, and...missing among the victims of the bomb explosion in Manchester last week.

Under explosion circumstances, the 'missing'  are usually dead humans in an unidentifiable condition. 

I happen to know a religious young man who's a volunteer at ZAKA Rescue Unit; his task and that of his colleagues on the team, isׂ (among other things) to collect body remains scattered in the area of the disaster, and help with the identification job of the forensic technician.  It sounds horrible; it is horrible, but someone has to do it. 

ZAKA team in action (web picture)

ZAKA, a civilian volunteer organization founded in Jerusalem in 1995 (activity started several years earlier),  has as its motto: "saving those who can be saved, honoring those who cannot".  ZAKA also operates internationally offering assistance in mass disasters around the world (eartquakes, zunamis, terrorism etc..). They were probably present on the Manchester scene too. Kudos to them for their holy work!

We all know that "prevention is the best cure". This applies not only to health issues , but to other issues as well.

The Manchester suicide bomber, so we're told ,was on the list of 'subjects of interest'. So, what exactly did those with the "list" do about it?  Nothing, it seems; absolutely nothing!  Now, they're investigating.... Good Luck with that, but there is no time; terrorism  has a dynamics of its own.